Any armchair medicals here tonight?
Tims’ post made me a little more conciouse of my own mortality this weekend, so I’ll ask if this has happened to anyone here.
Saturday I cut and bent 63 pieces of #5 rebar. That is pretty tough work for my 152 lb. 56 yo out of shape body. #4 i can handle fairly easily, but #5s I have to bounce on the cutter to work my way through the cut. Took me about two and a half hours, but I got them all done and scatterred to get tied into the footings on the house. The rest of the day was pretty light stuff so I was felling tired but pretty good about getting this house started after all the rainouts I have had. DW and I talked about schedules and she made some notes around 8:00pm, then I took a shower. When i got out of the shower I noticed my right eye was bloody on the right lower quadrant.
Burst blood vessel was the obviouse cause, but what caused it and what is my body telling me? Never had anything like this happen before.
I going to see the eye doc Wed., and maybe set up a complete physical in a month or so.
Dave
Replies
I wouldn't worry, Dave. I've had this happen, too - usually after a day of straining at whatever. Went by the eye Doc's office last time it happened. He told me it would probably happen again soon in the same eye, that somehow it weakened things for a short time. Sure enough, it popped up again about two weeks later. It usually clears up in a day or two - no pain or even discomfort.
Greg.
It's a subconjunctival hemorrhage, and it's harmless. I am an ED physician > 25 years, and I've never seen one related to a serious condition yet. They are not associated with bleeding in either the anterior chamber or the vitreous fluid. Most of the times they are "spontaneous" but can be related to straining or coughing, sneezing, vomiting, etc. Many times they will spread out and enlarge over several hours. They also slightly elevate the bulbar conjunctiva ( the conjunctiva over the eyeball as opposed to the palpebral conjuctiva of the eyelid lining). Of course we ED docs are jacks of all trades and masters of few. If you hear otherwise from your opthamalogist take his advice, but it's most often a waste of time to see someone for what you are describing.
Thanks. I ussually just blow things like this off, but Dw is a little concerned. With this house to build and a six year old grandson to raise, she doesn't want me stroking out on her.
Dave
Dave..work smart not hard.
Rent a rebar bender for that many pieces and I sure hope you didn't use a hacksaw to cut the pieces rather than a saw zall w/ a metal cutting blade.
Be very well
andy
The way we regard death is critical to the way we experiance life.
When your fear of death changes, the way you live your life changes.
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Edited 9/16/2003 2:46:46 AM ET by Andy Clifford(Andybuildz)
I've got six and eight foot cheaters for the handle on the cutter.
Excellence is its own reward!
exactly...does that go into tips or do most of us already know that?
Be bent
andy The way we regard death is critical to the way we experiance life.
When your fear of death changes, the way you live your life changes.
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
I too have cheaters for everyting.:-)
One welded on the fence strechers, two in the pickup for everything else and all my pipe wrenches have a slightly bent handle.
Couldn't work without one.<G>
A few years ago had a horse paw at my head and left a small indentation in the skull there and that eye had such an hemorrage. It looked impressive but didn't hurt any and was gone in some two/three weeks.
It did break my clavicle and that didn't hurt either. It grew back with a bump on it.
Can't you use a cutting torch and grind the ends, if they need to be very smooth, on that rebar?
I was using my rebar cutter/bender!
#5s are just a little to much for my skinny old frame.
Piffin, the bar that came with the cutter is 66". I'll try adding a cheater to 8' on the next batch. Might have to remount the thing on a longer board, so I am still standing on the board when I start the cut. At 6'1" I think I can reach high enough on a 8' cheater to get the necessary leverage.
What was couriouse about this thing was that it did not show up untill late Saturday night. I cut all the rebar early morning, and the blood vessel burst while I was taking a shower some 12-14 hours later.
dave
Use a cutting torch to cut that stuff. Then, to bend it, just heat up where you want it bent, grab the ends with a pair of welder's gloves, and it bends like half-cooked spaghetti. Next....
Dave--you're almost exactly the same size and weight and age as me. (You've got 5 years and 5 lbs on me.) I can do it with hand tools, too. But like the Andy-Man said: work smart, not hard. I've seen the kid in the lumber yard notch ½" rebar with a hack saw and then break it in half over his knee. But he's only doing one or two at a time. (And he weighs about 250, LOL!) When you've got that kind of quantity, go rent a torch.
The eye thing: the fact it happened while in the shower might not be that odd; a nice hot shower will lower your BP, and your blood vessels will dilate. If you'd created a pinhole in the capillary in question, when it dilated, the pinhole would stretch and start pissing out blood. In general, though, the ER doc is right. It'll go away by itself. You'll just be scary lookin' for a while.
However, just to be on the safe side: Do you have any medical conditions that could have contributed to it? High BP, hæmophelia, anemia, cardiac or vascular problems? Are you taking any medication that affects BP? (Nitro or Viagara, for instance and fer chrissakes don't take those two within 48hours of each other!!!! It'll kill ya deader than a doornail. No joke.). If not, you can probably ignore it as a fluke. Question is, can you ignore DW? Probably not a good idea....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
I can probably get a fat migrant labor cheaper than renting a cutting torch.
No medical conditions and no meds yet. Dw is 7 years younger than me and doesn't think I need Viagra yet.
Eye doctor gave me the same explanation as everyone else here. Also told me to stop smoking b/c in addtion to the other bad stuuf it does to your health it increases the pressure inside the eyes, and may contribute to glucoma.
DW is picking up the patches tonight and is going to kick the habit with me. Maybe I'll put on enough weight to not need the fat mexican for the rebar cutter/bender <G>.
Dave
Most folks don't realize what smoking does to their eyes.
When I had my street survival training for police work, they pointed out that even if I don't smoke but my riding partner inthe car does, the oxygen in my blood is reduced by 15-50% and that is how the eyes are fed. The point there was that in dim light, in a critical situation, your night and detail vision is shot all to pieces.
My wife's ex smoked and drank terribly. Before he died, his eyesight was nearly gone. Docs had him on vitamins and pills for it but they said his smoking was doing those orbs of his in and that the drinking wasn't helping either..
Excellence is its own reward!
I read recently that nicotine "addiction" was really not that strong and for many people it is the social/psycholical factors (ie, habit). I know that it was for me. BY LARGE LARGE DEGREE.
I could still taste the nicotine for weeks after. Every now and then, in the spring, when the sunlight is just right.....
Excellence is its own reward!
I read recently that nicotine "addiction" was really not that strong and for many people it is the social/psycholical factors (ie, habit
For me I think there is an incredibly strong addititive factor at work. I quit in 1976 after 4 or 5 years of regular smoking. To this day I often experience strong urges to smoke when I find myself suddenly in a cloud of smoke. Yes, 1976. Life wasn't that good for me then that I psychologically crave those days.
Poured the footing today and stubbed all those cursed #5 bar in place.
Had to pull the patch off within 5 minutes of starting the pour. Exertion for screeding was making me dizzy. Have agree about the mental part of the nicotine addiction.
piffen, I know all to well the physiological ramifications of smoking. Durring part of my training as a SCUBA Dive Master I read the USN diver traing manual, it is all there and very convincing.
I am finding that a lot of physical activity helps. This house ought to keep me active for a year or better, so maybe I'll make it over the hump this time.
Dave
Years and years ago I was trying trying to cut down from 2+ packs aday.
I said that I would not smoke another one for an hour.
15 minutes later I realized that I had a 1/2 smoke one in my fingers and another one in the ash tray that I had already finished without realizing it.
It was a few months later I opened my last pack one Sunday mornign reading the paper. And the pack was stale.
I started to get up and go out and get some fresh ones. But it was cold and raining and decided them to stop.
But the habit was so strong I still kept picking up that pack and TRIED to smoke about 1/2 of them.
In case you hadn't noticed, there isn't a single human health problem known to medical science--including dandruff, hangnails, and tendonitis--that isn't directly and uniquely caused by smoking.
Or so one would be led to believe by the great chicken-hearted majority of the medical profession these days....
On the cost of the torch--I don't know whether to worry about the high prices at your rental agency, or the low wages you pay your help.... A cutting torch here costs $40/day plus gas; I can't hire a helper smart enough to hit the floor with his hat three times out of four, for less than $80 per day, unless he's only 14 years old. (And sometimes even then!)
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Ironically, it is tobaco cutting time in the rural county I live in. I can get a migrant worker for 4 hrs. for $32.00. If I can cut that much rebar in a couple of hours, surely one of them can in 4.
Dave
As an industrial carpenter for a local steel mill, we were always doing concrete pours. I've laid thousands of feet of rebar of all sizes...bent into all kinds of shape. We always used a oxy aceteline cutting torch, using a number 4 or 5 cutting tip.
Guys in the shop often talked about getting a rebar bender/cutter, but our boss never purchased one for us, so cutting torch it was.
My question is simply...how well does a manual bender/cutter work? Usually, we worked with 3/4 inch and thicker bar...sometimes the smaller stuff ( no. 4). When cutting with a torch...depending how rusty the bar was ( we left it outside all the time) it would require between 5 to 8 seconds to make a cut.....how much faster would a manual cutter work? Normally, to speed things up, we would line up a stack of bar, mark across them with a soap stone pencil, and proceed to cut across em all at once.
Thanks...just curious...always wanted to use one cause I've heard so much about it. But, I do like my torch!
Davo
I have used a "smoke wrench" to cut and bend rebar and IMO it is faster than a cutter/ bender. I worked mostly as a commercial carp and most of the time using a torch was expressly forbidden on rebar. Most jobs the bar was precut and preformed for specific uses.
The cutter/bender is a more convenient tool for most carpenter/ concrete crews. Lightwieght, doesn't take up a lot of room, and the only thing that has to be refilled is the guy on the end of the handle (couple of brewskies at the end of the day).
Dave
my MOm get's that every now and then ....one of her medications make it more prevelant ....
Just happened to the wife for the first time last week ......spent the night at the toilet up chucking from the flu ...next morning.....looked like I'd beaten her!
She was scared.....reminded her about Mom .....she had an allergy apt a coupla days later .....the allergy Doc looked her over ....sain no big deal.....throwing up just strained a vessel .....
Sounds like what happened to you.
But Like my Dad usta say when I'd get hurt dirtbike riding and knew I didn;t really have to go get an x-ray ....."Your mom thinks U need one so I'm driving U to get one....we'll both get thru this quicker if U shut up and get into the car...."
So if yer wifes thinks a check up is a good idea.....probably is!
Jeff
Buck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Fine Carpentery.....While U Waite